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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION. 



^IDIDI^ESS 



DELIVERED IN THE 



HAIL OF THE HOUSE 01 REPRESENTATIVES 



BEFORE THE 



Ali OF 11 CMl ME 



BY 



LeROY F. YOUM_A.NS, 

0?ie of the jilumuL 



December 6th, 1881 



COLUMBIA, S. C: 

PRINTED AT THE PRESBYTERfAN PUBLISHING HOlfSK 

1882. 



I 



ALUMNI ASSOCIATION. 



At a Reunion of the Class which graduated in South Carolina Col- 
lege in 1846, held at Columbia on the 7th December, 1880, the follow- 
ing resolution was adopted : 

Resolved, That for the purpose of initiating a movement for the for- 
mation of an Association of the Alumni of the South Carolina College, 
and of the University of South Carolina, the following gentlemen, to wit : 
Hon. J. L. Manning, Hon. W. D. Simpson, Hon. H. Mclver, Hon. 
Samuel McGrowan, Hon. Chas. H. Simonton, Hon. A. C. Haskell, Prof 
J. H. Carlisle, LL. D., Gen. Jno. Bratton, Hon. W. H. Perry, be re- 
quested to act as a Committee to call a meeting of the Alumni, select a 
suitable person to prepare an address to be delivered before them, and 
to make such other arrangements as may be necessary to provide for the 
meeting of the Alumni, 

That the Secretary be requested to furnish each member of the Com- 
mittee with a copy of these resolutions. 

W. H. PARKER, Secretary. 

In accordance with this resolution, the gentlemen named called a meet- 
ing of the Alumni, and invited the Hon. LeRoy F. Youmans to deliver 
an address before them. The meeting was held in the Hall of the 
House of Representatives on the Gth December ; and after listening to 
Mr. Youmans's address, the Alumni Association of South Carolina Col- 
lege was formed. 



MINUTES. 



Columbia, S. C, December 6, 1881. 

A large number of gentlemen, formerly students in the South Caro- 
lina College, assembled in the hall of the House of Hepresentatives. 

Col. J. H. Rion called the meeting to order, and, on his motion, the 
meeting was organized by requesting Hon. Jiio. L. Manning to take the 
chair. 

Hon, Jno. L. Manning took the chair, and, on motion of (^ol. Rion, 
Messrs. James Simons and Jno. T. Sloan, Jr., were appointed Secretaries. 

Mr. A. S. J. Perry stated that the object of the meeting was to form 
an Association to be known as the Alumni Association of the South 
Carolina College, and moved that a Committee of three be appointed to 
prepare and submit a Constitution and By-laws for the government of 
the Association. 

The Chair appointed as the Committee, Messrs, A. S. J. Perry, Jno. 
Bratton, R. W. Shand. 

On motion of Col. F. W. McMaster, it was 

Resolved^ That the gentlemen present be requested tfo sign a roll, giv- 
ing their post-offices, professions or occupations, and the date of their 
leaving College. 

On motion of Rev. E. H. Buist, it was 

Resolved^ That a Committee of two be appointed to draft a memorial 
to be presented to the General Assembly, praying that the South Caro- 
lina College and University be reopened. 

The Chair appointed as this Committee, Rev. E. H. Buist and Rev. 
E. L. Patton. 

Mr. A, S. J. Perry, for the Committee appointed to prepare a Consti- 
tution and By-laws for the Association, made the following report: 

The Committee appointed to draft the Constitution, beg leave to sub- 
mit: 

Article I. The name of the Association shall be. The Alumni Asso- 
ciation of the South Carolina College and University. 

Art. II The object of the Association is to bring together in frater- 
nal union all those who have enjoyed the fostering care of the South 



Carolina College and University, to promote the welfare and interests of 
the institution, and to advance the cause of Education within and through- 
out the State of South Carolina. 

Art. III. The officers of the Association shall be a President, five 
Vice Presidents, Secretary and Treasurer, who shall be elected at the 
annual meeting of the Association, and shall continue in office for one 
year, or until their successors are chosen. 

Art. IV. These officers, together with fourteen other members to be 
elected at the annual meeting of the Association, shall constitute an Ex- 
ecutive Committee, which shall have power to attend to the business of 
the Association in the interim of its meetings. 

Art. V. All persons who have been students in the South Carolina 
College previous to the first day of January, 1874, and subsequent to 
first day of January, 1880, and all persons who shall hereafter be stu- 
dents in said College and University, shall be eligible to membership af- 
ter they have left the College. 

Art. VI. Any person eligible according to Art. V., desiring to join 
the Association, may be elected a member of the Association at an an- 
nual meeting, or by the Executive (committee at any meeting of the 
same. 

Art. VII. Each member, on his election, shall pay the sum of one 
dollar, and further, to defray the expenses of the Association, each mem- 
ber shall pay to the Treasurer the sum of one dollar on or before the 
day of the annual meeting of the Association. 

Art. VIII. The Professors, ex- Professors, and Trustees, shall be re- 
garded honorary members of the Association, and the Association or 
Executive Committee may elect as honorary members such other persons 
as they see fit. 

Art. IX. The Association shall hold an annual meeting in the city 
of Columbia on the first Monday in December in each and every year, 
at such hour and place as shall be designated by the Executive Commit- 
tee, notice whereof shall be given by said Executive Committee in such 
manner as it shall deem best. 

Art. X. The Executive Committee shall hold such meetings, and at 
such hours and places, as they shall determine. 

Art. XI. At the meetings of the Association, twenty-one members 
shall constitute a quorum. At the meetings of the Executive Committee, 
seven members of the same shall constitute a quorum. 

Art. XII. An address shall be delivered at each annual meeting by a 
member selected at the preceding meeting ; and in case the person so 



6 

Hiolected shall decline, or should become unable to prepare such address, 
the Executive Committee shall be authorized to elect an orator in his 
stead. 

On motion of Mr. A. C Haskell, the Constitution and By-laws were 
adopted, with the amendment that the day of meeting be on the first 
Wednesday after the first Monday in December. 

An election for officers of the Association was then held, and the fol- 
lowing gentlemen elected : , 

President. 
Hon. John L. Manning. 

Vice Presidents. 

Hon. AV. D. Simpson, 
Hon. Henry McIver, 
Hon. J. H. Carlisle, LL. D., 
Hon. C. H. Simonton, 
Gen. Jno. Braxton. 

Secretary and Treasurer. 
Col. F. W. McMaster. 

Executive Commtttee. 
Hon. Alex. McQueen, 
Hon. Samuel McGowan, 
Hon. Thos. B. Jeter, 
Col. J. H. Rion, 

Hon. a. S. J. Perry, ; 

Rev. E. L. Patton, \ 

W. H. Huger, M. D., 
Rev. E. H. Buist, 
Hon. W. H. Perry, 
Hon. R. W. Shand, 
Hon. a. C. Haskell, 
Hon. C. J. C. Hutson, 
Hon. J. J. Hemphill, 
N. B. Barnwell, Esq. 

Mr. Thomas M. Hanckel was then elected orator for the next annual 



On motion of Rev. E. L. Patton, D. D., it was 

Resolved, That the thanks of the Association be tendered to the Hon. 
]^eRoy F. Youmans for his eloquent, finished, and classical address, and 
that a copy of the same be requested for publication. 

Rev. E. H. Buist, on behalf of the Committee appointed to prepare 
the Memorial to the General Assembly, submitted the following 

MEMORIAL. 

Your petitioners respectfully call your attention to the following fact* 
as the grounds of their appeal : 

First. To the distinguished and important part which the College haa 
played in the history of our beloved Commonwealth in dispensing a lib- 
eral education for more than half a century, by which her sons were fitted 
for the high and responsible positions which they filled in all public of- 
fices within our borders. South Carolina could never have been what 
she was without the old South Carolina College. Many who have added 
lustre to her fame were trained in the old College, founded by the wis- 
dom and supported by the generosity of our fathers. 

Second. Economy demands the establishment of a State Institution, 
to which our sons may repair, instead of resorting to institutions be- 
yond our borders. Thousands of dollars could thus be kept within our 
own confines that are now, and will be, expended beyond the limits of 
the State. 

Third. The immediate and most pressing want of the hour is to re- 
move all alienations from the hearts of our people. This necessity which 
presses upon us — that South Carolina should be a unit, and her chil- 
dren feel that they are members of the same family — this can be achieved 
by no agency so effectually as by a common place of education, to which 
her children can resort, and walk arm in arm through the hallowed sea- 
son of youth. Her sons, educated at a great State Institution, will be 
the last to foment discord and foster feuds. 

Fourth. Almost all our sister States have already founded, or are about 
to establish, such central State institutions; and South Carolina, which 
was among the foremost of the Southern States, cannot afford to lag 
behind, and allow her citizens to grow up in ignorance and (its inevita- 
ble consequence) vice. 

Fifth. Such an institution would be, as heretofore, the centre from 
which light must radiate to all parts of the State — the source from which 
would be derived that knowledge so essential to our prosperity as a com- 



moTiwealth. This State Institution would be, in time, the consumma- 
tion of our public school system — an institution to which her children 
could repair, and secure that --higher culture" which now they have to 
jseek beyond her territory. 

Sixth. Your petitioners further show that a very small appropriation 
would secure these incalculable benefits. Already does the State own 
the necessary buildings ; the library is as fine as there is in any South- 
ern State; and there are all the other equipments demanded by such an 
institution. The body is there; and it needs but the breath of life to 
b(!Come a living soul that shall bless the State for generations to come. 

Finally, such an institution will interfere with no educational enter- 
prise in other portions of the State. On the contrary, it will stimulate 
and develop those within our own borders, as similar institutions have 
done in other States. 

By way of summary or recapitulation : It will complete our system of 
public schools. It will meet the requirements of ever-advancing intelli- 
gence. It will contribute to the revenue of the State by keeping within 
our borders money which will else be spent outside ; and to accomplish 
all this, a very small appropriation will be required. 

We are laying now the foundation for the future house in which we, 
as a people, arc to dwell. Let us build loisely. 

In view of all these facts, and on these grounds, we, the Alumni of 
the South Carolina College and University, respectfully petition your 
Honorable Body to make such appropriation. 

And your petitioners will ever pray. 

JOHN L. MANNING, 
Pres. of Alumni Sue. S. C. C. and U. 

F. W. McMASTER, 

Secretary. 



MEMBERS OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION. 



Name. 



18i^8John C. Faber 

1830 L. J. Patterson 

1831 Thos. M. Lyles 

1831John T. Sloan 

1833 B. F.Williamson 

1827 J. P. Carroll 

1827 Francis W. Fickling.... 

1834 E. Y. Fair..... 

1834 M. L. Bonham 

1837 John L. Manning 

1838 Edward M. Boykin 

1840 E. D.Smith 

1840 Wilmot G. DeSaussure. 

1840 Tho. M. Hanckel 

1841 S. McOowan 

1843 D. L. Anderson 

1852 T. Stobo Farrow 

1849 J. L. Jones 

1849 Wm. Weston 

1861 H. W. Rice 

1842 H. P. Green 

1861 John M. Bell 

1861 Wm. R. Atkinson 

1855 Alfred Wallace 

1862 Iredell Jones 

1857 J. D. Kennedy 

1862 T. J. Mpore 

1852LeRoy F. Youmans. ... 

1859 Richard I. Manning 

1855 Jas. McCutchen 

1855 B. F. Whitner 

1849 W. Z. Leitner 

1856 W. J. DuRant 

1856 E. H. Kellers 

1855|B. W.Taylor 

1842j James D. Trezevant 

1848|Wra. S. Dogan ' 

1849 Charles H. Simonton.... 

18681 Jos. W. Barnwell 

1868'John T. Sloan, Jr 

1873'Wm. II. Faber 



Profession. 



M. D 

Farmer 

Farmer 

Clerk House Repre's, 

Farmer 

Attorney-at-Law 

Attorney-at-Law 

Planter 

Lawyer 

Planter 

M.D 

M. D 

Lawyer 

Lawyer 

Judge 

Physician 

Lawyer 

Planter 

M. D 

Lawyer 



Post Office. 



Planter 

Teacher (Principal). 

M.D 

Planter 

Lawyer 

Planter 

Lawyer 

Planter 

Planter 

Lawyer 

Lawyer 

Planter 

Physician 

Physician 

Farmer 

Reporter of Register. 

Lawyer 

Lawyer 

Tiawycr 

Lawyer 



Columbia, S. C. 
Liberty Hill, S. C. 
Lylesford, S. (\ 
Columbia, S. C. 
Darlington, S. C. 
Columbia, S. C. 
Columbia, S. C. 
Montgomery, Ala. 
Edoefield, S. C. 
Fuiton P. 0., S. C. 
Camden, S. C. 
Richland, S. C. 
Charleston, S. C. 
Charleston, S. C. 
Abbeville C.H.,S.C 
Laurens C. H., S. C. 
Spartanburg, S. C. 
Liberty Hill, S. C. 
Richland Co., S. C. 
Lexington, S. C. 
Columbia, S. C. 
Graniteville, S. C. 
Charlotte, N. C. 
Columbia. S. C. 
Rock Hill, S. C. 
Camden, S. C. 
Spartanburc:, S. C. 
Columbia, S. C. 
Fort Motte, S. C. 
Kingstree, S. C. 
x\ndcrson, S. C. 
Camden, S. C. 
Sumter, S. C. 
Charleston, S. C. 
Columbia, S. C. 
Fort Motte, S. C. 
Columbia, S. C. 
Charleston, S. C. 
Charleston, S. C. 
Columbia, S. C. 
Charleston, S. C. 



10 




Profession. 



Post Office. 



1847 F. W. McMaster 

1849, John P.Richardson.... 
1851) John E. Bacon 

1857 M. C. Butler 

1847|Thonias Frost 

18G2 Malcohn I. Browning. 

1850. James H. liion 

1839JA. B. Springs 

1854 a. 8. Trezevant 

1843 W. D. Simpson 

1846 Henry Mclver 

1850 Jno, Bratton 

1850G. IT. McMaster 

185llR H. Harkson 

185G John T. Rhett 

1852P. E. Griffin 

1858E. II. Buist 

1858 W. W. Spencer 

1858W. W. Leo-are 

1852 R. W. Boyd 

1852 E. C. McLure 

1852 Ed. H. Barnwell 

1852 Thos. W. Woodward.. 

1859 C. J. C. Hutson 

1860 A. 0. Haskell 

1847|A. D. Goodwyn 

1 847 Jame« Farrow 

1847iJas. N. Lipscomb 

1852 Thomas J. Lipscomb.. 

1861 VV. K. Thompson 

1866 Newman K. Perry 

1868 A. C. Moore 

1854|J. H. Brooks 

1854 1. I>. Witherspoon 

18421 Wm. Pinkney Starke. 

1848 A. N. Talley 

1844 William Wallace 

1850 Robert Lebby, Jr 

1858 Isaac Hayne 

1848 E. W. Seibels 

1848 Jas. P. Adams 

1854'W. J. Duffie 

1846 K. L. Patton 

1846 W.E. Aiken 



I Lawyer {Columbia, S. C. 

Planter jPanola, S. C. 

Lawyer jColumbia, S. C. 

Lawyer lEdgefield, S. 0. 

Lawyer jCharleston, S. C. 

Lawyer jOrangeburg, S. C. 

Lawyer , IWinnsboro, S. C. 

Planter Charlotte, N. C. 

Physician 

Judge 

Judge 

Planter 



Columbia, S. C. 

Columbia, S. C. 

Cheraw, S. C. 

Fairfield, S. C. 

.Merchant jWinnsboro, S. C 

Teacher Columbia, S. C. 

Lawyer Columbia, S. C 

Physician Columbia, S. C. 

jNIinister Cheraw, S. C. 

Planter Cheraw. S. C. 

Professor Walhalla, S. C 

Lawyer Darlington , S . C. 

Lawyer Chester, S. C. 

I Merchant 'Charleston, S. C. 

iFarmer jWinnsboro, S. C. 



.Lawyer 

.Law 

.Planter , 

.Law 

. Planter , 

. Sup't S. C. Penite'y 
. Merchant & Planter 

.Lawyer jColumbia, S. C. 

.Lawyer IColumbia. S. C. 

.Planter I Ninety-Six, S. C. 



Yemassee, S. C. 
Columbia, S. C. 
Fort Motte, S. C. 
Laurens S. C. 
Newberry, S. C. 
Columbia, S. C. 
Liberty Hill, S. C. 



Yorkville, S. C 

Beech Island, S. C. 

Columl)ia, S. C. 

Columbia, S. C. 

Charleston, S. C. 

Charleston, S. C. 

(Columbia, S. C. 

Planter jGrovewood, S. C. 

Merchant {Columbia, 8. C. 

^Iinister& Professor. Due West, S. C. 
M. D IWiunsboro, S. C. 



Lawyer 

Teaching 

Physician 

Lawyer 

I^hysician & Planter 
Lawyer 



Gen'l Insur. Agent 



11 




Profession. 



Post Office. 



184(3 A. S. J. Perry IMerchant |Charleston, S. C. 

1846, Wm. H. Parker iLawyer ...J Abbeville, S. C. 



1846jW. H. Hui^er... 

1846|Isaac H. Means. 

184G!Thos. B. Jeter.. 

1840 B. 11. Scott. 

1859 

1859 

1859 

1859 

18G1 

1848 

1850 

1869 

1869 

1870 

1867 

1868 

1869 

1869 



184' 

1841 

1841 

1841 

1814 

1849 

1857 

1857 



Milton Leverett.. 

W. C. Coker 

R. W. Shand.... 

James Simons 

L. C. Sy'vester.... 

Robert Henry 

Joseph Glover.... 
R. Means Davis.. 

T. C. Gaston. 

M. C. Robertson 
N. B. Barnwell... 
Jno. S. Reynolds. 
T. R. Robertson., 
Isaac M. Bryan.. 
Thos. B.Fraser.. 
J. J). Blanding... 
Alex. McQueen.. 
Wm. F. Lester.... 

J. K. Vance 

Jno. W. Carlisle.. 
Elias L. Rivers .. 



Planter 

J. F. J. Caldwell Lawyer 

1870iT. H. Gibbes Banker 

1870 W. E. Pelham Druiroist 

1845 
1873 
1874 
1858 
1869 
1858 
1842 
1862 



M. D Charleston, S. C 

Planter Fairfield, S. C. 

Planter jUnion, S. C. 

Teacher Monticello, S. C 

Columbia, S. C 
Merchant & Planter 

Lawyer 

Lawyer 

Teacher 

Physician 

Planter 

Teacher 

Lawyer , 

Clerk |Winnsboro, S. C. 

Attorney-at-Law i Columbia, S. C. 

Attorney-at-Law IWinnsboro, S. C. 

Attorney-at-Law {Charlotte, N. C. 

Attorney-at-Law jGreenville, S. C. 

Jud,<z;e jSumter, S. C. 

Lawyer jSumter, S . C. 

Senator ICheraw, S. C. 

Farmer Columbia, S. C. 

Planter jLaurens, S. C. 

Lawyer Spartanburg, S. C 



Society Hill, S. C. 
Union. S. C. 
Charleston, S. C. 
Columl)ia, S. C. 
Gourdin'sSta.,S. C. 
Grahamville, S. C. 
Winnsboro, S. C. 
Chester, S. C. 



Charleston, S. C. 

Newberry, S. C. 

Columbia, S. C. 

Newberry, S. C. 

W. F. B. Haynesworth.. Lawyer ISumter, S. C. 

Jno. A. Faber Lawyer & Reporter..! Charleston, S. C 



Jno. P. Thomas, Jr Lawyer 

Thomas F. Gadsden Minister 

Jno. J. Hemphill Lawyer 

Abram Huguenin Lawyer , 

W. H. R. Workman Lawyer 

Augustine Thos. Smy the. I Lawyer 

Andrew M. Ad<2jer ;Cotton Factor.., 



Columbia, S. C. 
Anderson. 8. C 
Chester, S. C. 
Beaufort, S. C. 
Camden, S. C. 
Charleston, S. C. 
Charleston, S. 0. 



E. E. Jenkins iPhysician |Charleston, S. C. 



18 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

Columbia, S. C, 13th December, 1881. 
Hon. LeEoy F. Youmans, Columbia, S. C. : 

Dear Sir: We have the honor to herewith transmit you a copy of 
a resolution introduced by Rev. E. L. Patton, D. D., at a meeting of 
the Alumni of the South Carolina College and University, held in the 
Hall of the House of Representatives, at Columbia, S. C, on the even- 
ing of December 6th, instant, and unanimously adopted : 

^'-Resolved., That the thanks of this Association be tendered to the 
'"'Hon. LeRoy F. Younians for his eloquent, finished, and classical address 
"just delivered before the Alumni, and that a copy of the same be re- 
" quested for publication ;" and in accordance therewith we request of 
you a copy for publication. 

We have the honor to be, ' 

Your obedient servants, 

JAMES SIMONS, 
JOHN T. SLOAN, Jr., 

Secretaries. 



CoLUxMBiA, S. C, December 13, 1881. 
To James Simons and John T. Sloan, Jr., Esqrs. : 

Gentlemen : In response to your request, made at the instance of 
the Alumni of the South Carolina College and University, for a copy of 
my address delivered on December Gth instant, I have the honor to say, 
that, impelled by the same motives which induced me to accept the in- 
vitation to deliver the address, I herewith send you the manuscript. 
Very respectfully, 

LeROY f. youmans. 



In the House of Representatives of the State of South Carolina, on 
December ], 1881, Mr. Simonton introduced the following resolution, 
which was considered immediately, and agreed to : 

Resolved, That the use of the Hall of the House of Representatives 
be allowed to the Alumni of the South Carolina College and University 
for the evening of Tuesday, Gth December, upon which occasion an 
oration will be delivered before the Alumni by Hon. LeRoy F. Youmans. 



14 

On the evening of Tuesday, 6th December, 1881, the Hon. John L. 
Manning read to the audience assembled in the Hall of the House of 
Representatives, the following : 

At a meeting of the Committee appointed to inaugurate a movement 
for the formation of an Association of the Alumni of the South Caro- 
lina College, the Hon. John L. Manning, Chairman, being detained by 
sickness in his flimily, Chief Justice Simpson was called to the chair, 
and General John Bratton requested to act as Secretary, when the fol- 
lowing resolutions were unanimously adopted : 

Resolved^ First. That it should be a matter of congratulation to the 
State, that the South Carolina College at Columbia has been reopened 
under such favorable auspices as now surround it. 

Second. That the Trustees now in charge are entitled to the plaudit 
of "well done" for the earnest and disinterested zeal which they have 
manifested in putting this noble institution into operation. 

Third. That with a view to foster, encourage, and sustain this insti- 
tution, and still further to increase its usefulness, it is desirable that a 
permanent Association, consisting of its Alumni, should be organized at 
an early day. 

Fourth. That to this end, the surviving Alumni of this institution 
prior to the 1st of January, 1874, and subsequent to the 1st of Janu- 
ary, 1880, be invited to meet in Columbia on the first Monday of De- 
cember next, at 7 o'clock p. m., and that an Executive Committee, con- 
sisting of Messrs. J. H. Rion, F. W. McMaster, and A. S. J. Perry, be 
appointed to extend invitations and make the necessary arrangements for 
gaid meeting. 

Fifth. That in view of the fact that this institution, as at present 
organized, is now without regular Professors in the departments of 
Ancient and Modern Languages, the Executive Committee herein ap- 
pointed be requested to suggest to the Association, when formed, a 
scheme to supply this deficiency. 

Sixth. That the Hon. LeRoy F. Youmans be invited to deliver a 
public address suitable to the occasion. 

W. D. SIMPSON, Chairman. 
John Bratton, Secretary. 

After reading these resolutions, the Hon. John L. Manning intro- 
duced to the audience the lion. LcRoy F. Youmans, who delivered the 
following address : 



15 



ADDKESS 



The invitation which has been tendered me in accordance with 
the last of these resolutions, has been accepted not from any 
sense of my ability to deliver such an address ; for, on the con- 
trary, there is upon me the mOst profound consciousness of my 
inability to deliver a public address suitable to this occasion. And 
had I been privileged to have a voice, aye, even had I known 
that my name had been suggested for this purpose, I would have 
insisted that sons of the College far more competent than myself 
should have been selected for the performance of this duty. But 
the invitation has been accepted, because the request of the foster 
sons of the South Carolina College imposes upon every one who 
has been nurtured by her, a command to at least attempt perform- 
ance of whatever office may, in their judgment, tend to encour- 
age, sustain, and increase the usefulness of our common fostering 
mother. 

On the 19th December, 1801, the General Assembly ratified 
the Act to establish the College, and the College itself went into 
operation on the lOth January, 1805. The impelling motives to the 
pa,«5sage of this Act, and the purposes with which and the objects 
for which the College was established, are manifest both from the 
contemporaneous records of the State, and the contemporaneout< 
testimony of the men who assisted at its birth and stood by the 
side of the cradle in which its infancy was rocked, from the state- 
ments of those to whom the facts were narrated by tlie actors, 
and from the pen of the historian. On November 23d, 1801, in 
pursuance of the duty imposed upon him, as Governor, by the 
Constitution, "from time to time, to give to the General Assem- 
bly information of the condition of the State, and to recommend 



16 



to their consideration such measures as he should judge necessary 
or expedient," Governor John Drayton, in his message to the 
General Assembly, said : "Advantageous to the citizens of the 
State will be any attention which you will bestow upon the edu- 
cation of her youth. At the commencement of your last session 
I took pleasure in submitting this to your consideration, and I 
now repeat the same to you as a matter claiming your serious and 
early attention. Were a person to look over the laws of the 
State, he would find that five Colleges are incorporated therein ; 
and did his inquiries proceed no further, he would naturally 
imagine we had already arrived at an enviable excellence in liter- 
ature. He would perceive a College instituted at Charles Town, 
one at Cambridge, one at Winnsborough, one at Beaufort, and 
one by the name of Alexandria College, in the upper part of the 
State — all of which are empoAvered to confer degrees. But were 
he to direct his inquiries further concerning them, he would find 
that Cambrid";e and Winnsborough Col]eo;es were soon discon- 
tinned through a want of funds; and, although the last men- 
tioned one has been lately renewed through the exertions of the 
Mount Zion Society, it is still nothing but an elementary school, 
and one which can never rise to eminence as a College from its 
])resent support. Beaufort and Alexandria Colleges are as yet 
scarcely known but in the law Avhich incorporated them, and 
Charleston College is at present not entitled to an higher appel- 
lation than that of a respectable Academy or Grammar School." 
" Could the attention of the Legislature be directed to this im- 
])ortant object, and a State College be raised and fostered by its 
hand at Columbia, or some central and healthy part of the State, 
under ])ro])er directors and trustees, including as ex officio mem- 
bers the Executive and Judiciary of the State, and any other 
suitable public officers, there could be no doubt of its rising into 
eminence, because, being supported at first by the public funds, 



17 

the- means could not be wanting of inviting and providing for 
learned and respectable Professors in the various branches of 
science. Well chosen libraries would be procured, and philo- 
sophical apparatus lead the pursuits of our youth from theory to 
practice. The friendships of young men would thence be pro- 
moted and strengthened throughout the State, and our political 
union be much advanced thereby." 

The brief, yet accurate, unmistakable, and comprehensive words 
of the preamble of the Act incorporating the College, are : 

"Whereas, the proper education of youth contributes greatly 
to the prosperity of society, and ought always to be an object of 
legislative attention ; and whereas, the establishment of a Col- 
lege in a central part of the State, where all its youth may be 
educated, will highly promote the instruction, the good order, and 
the harmony of the whole community.'' 

So far as their contemporaneous expression can convey the idea 
of the Executive and Legislative Departments of the State as to 
the motives, objects, and purposes of the founders of the College, 
this record is full, clear, and conclusive. 

In our judicial tribunals, it is not permissible to introduce 
testimony in support of the credibility of witnesses, until that 
credibility has been assailed; but as respects all matters which 
come up for settlement before the high tribunal of history, it is. 
if not absolutely necessary, at least eminently proper, to estab- 
lish something as to the character of witnesses, their means of 
information, and their capacity and qualifications, intellectual and 
moral, for accuracy of perception, correctness of narrative, and 
soundness of judgment. 

Governed by this idea and speaking solely in this regard, I 
shall call attention, in briefest words, to Chancellor Henry W. 
DeSaussure, Chancellor Wm. Harper, Chief Justice John Belton 
O'Neall, and Dr. Maximilian LaBorde. 
2 AA 



18 

Chancellor DeSaussure, descended from a noble foreign an- 
cestry, was born in the low country of South Carolina prior 
to the Revolution, served as a volunteer in that war, while 
still a boy, and after the fall of the city of Charleston, 
refused to take British protection, and was sent to the prison 
ships. He was a member of the Convention which framed 
the Constitution of 1790, and, with Marion, advocated every 
proposition of mercy in favor of the beaten Tories. Afterwards 
he was director of the mint, at the instance of President 
Washington, from which position he retired with the thanks of 
the Father of his country, for the manner in which the duties had 
been performed,- and the regrets of the same great man at his re- 
tirement. And still later he was the head of the municipal gov- 
ernment of the city of Charleston. His fame was won both on 
military and civil fields. Of him, in 1837, Governor Pierce 
Butler said : "He has won the sword of a soldier amidst the perils 
of Revolution, and the ermine of a virtuous magistrate in peace; 
the one was never used but against the enemies of his country, 
and the other will descend from him without spot or blemish." 

The Legislature of the same date spoke most feelingly of his 
"long, able, and faithful services to the people of South Carolina, 
in the high judicial station which he had occupied," and said that 
those "services not only furnished the best memorial of his worth, 
but an enduring example to those who are destined to succeed 
him." Of him, in 1859, Chief Justice O'Neall said: "To him the 
system of Equity in South Carolina owes its shape, form, and ex- 
istence. He was to South Carolina what Kent was to New York." 
Indeed, by common consent of Bench and Bar, he is, to the sys- 
tem in South Carolina, what Nottingham was to that in South 
Britain — its father. He was one of that most important Commit- 
tee to whom was referred the message of Governor Drayton, re- 
commending the establishment of the College. Perhaps to his 



19 



eiForts, more than to those of any other man, the College owes its 
existence. He was a member of the first Board of Trustees of the 
College, and from the inception of its organization to the end of 
his long and useful life, in 1839, he watched over its progress 
and fortunes with parental solicitude ; and his "venerable form, 
as he came up to each annual commencement, his silvery locks 
waving in the bleak December's wind, and his noble countenance 
beaming with animation, as he viewed each graduating class go 
forth into the busy world, educated and prepared for its strug- 
gles," carried the mind back to the days when the foundations of 
the institution were laid, coeval with the commencement of the 
century. 

Of Chancellor William Harper it may be justly said, without 
reflecting upon the memory of any of the great men who have 
ever worn, or the valuable services of any of those who now wear, 
the judicial ermine in South Carolina, that there has never been 
his superior on the bench of the State. In truth, he united all 
the qualities of a great judge : an intellect comprehensive, quick, 
and acute, learning immense, memory most capacious and reten- 
tive, diligence, integrity, patience, suavity ; and in so far as a 
comparatively limited area and restricted theatre permit, is entitled 
to rank with Eldon, Marshall, Sugden, the great modern masters 
of the law. 

He was the first student admitted into the College, and in the 
language of his life-long friend, Mr. Petigru, himself for foi'ty 
years the leader of the bar of South Carolina, Harper was "the 
bard, the orator, the genius of the school." From the day of his 
entrance within its walls, until his death in 1847, no man took a 
deeper interest in, was a more close observer of, or more thorough- 
ly acquainted with, the life, theory, and practice, of the College. 

The name of John Belton O'Neall has been so long aiul so 
closely associated with the history of South Carolina, tluit to 



20 



speak of his services to the State, or of his high qualifications for 
the successive great positions which he held, would be to rehearse 
a thrice-told tale. In vigor of intellect, in purity of purpose, in 
that intellectual and moral strength which pierces through laby- 
rinths of sophistry, and aims unerringly for the right, in close, 
compact, articulated logic, and high poignant emphasis, he may 
fairly challenge comparison with any of that long line of princes 
of the gown who have built up and adorned the jurisprudence of 
South Carolina. From February, 1811, when from his native 
Newberry, whose annals he has written, he entered the South 
Carolina College, to his lamented death amid the rage of the civil 
waT, than he there lived no more faithful guardian, no more de- 
voted son of his Alma Mater. 

Of all the names on the bead-roll of the distinguished sons of the 

College, no one was so intimately acquainted and connected with 
it for so long a time as Dr. Maximilian LaBorde. In it, and with 
it, and for it, he lived and moved and had his earthly being ; 
and when, by rude hands the cords which bound them together 
were snapped, the silver cord was loosed, the golden bowl broken, 
the pitcher broken at the fountain, the wheel broken at the cis- 
tern. Exclusive of the inestimable services which he rendered to 
three decades of students, who had sat at his feet and amid whose 
tears he was borne to his honored grave in these late disastrous 
times, he has earned by his classic history of the College, accu- 
rate in fact and just in criticism, a work which after times will 
not willingly let die, the admiration and gratitude of the State 
which will last as lonoj as the name of the Colleore is extant. 

Hear ivhat these men say : From the Memoir of Chancellor 
DeSaussure, prepared by Chancellor Harper, at the request of 
the South Carolina Bar Association, Dr. LaBorde,in his History 
of the College, makes this extract : 

"In 1801, as a member of the Legislature, he took a zealous 



21 



and active part in promoting the Act for the establishment of the 
South Carolina College, and few contributed more to its success; 
an Act of more lasting benefit to the State, more honorable to its 
character, and more promotive of its true interests, than any 
which its Legislature ever passed. This measure originated in 
the contest which had arisen between the upper and lower coun- 
try of the State, with respect to representation in the Legislature. 
The upper country, which, at the adoption of the Constitution of 
1791, was comparatively poor and unpeopled, had allotted to it, 
by the provisions of the Constitution, a much smaller representa- 
tion. It had now grown in wealth, far outnumbered the lower 
country in its population, and imperatively demanded a reform in 
the representation. This the people of the lower country feared 
to grant, on the ground of the general deficiency of education and 
intelligence in the upper country, which would render it incom- 
petent to exercise wisely and justly the power which such a re- 
form would place in its hands. It was to remedy this deficiency, 
that it was proposed to establish a College at Columbia. The Act 
was passed, not without difficulty, nor without the strenuous op- 
position of many whom it was more especially intended to benefit. 
There is no citizen of the State, and still more, there is no one 
who has directly and personally received the benefits of the insti- 
tution, whose deepest gratitude is not due to every one who con- 
tributed, in any degree, to the success of the measure." 

Chief Justice O'Neall, in his Biographical Sketches of the Bench 
and Bar of South Carolina, says : "In 1800, Mr. DeSaussure was 
returned to the Legislature, and there, in 1801, aided successfully 
in establishing the South Carolina College*. He said to me, 'We 
of the lower country well knew that the power of the State was 
thenceforward to be in the upper country, and we desired our 
future rulers to be educated men." "And," continues Chief Jus- 
tice O'Neall, as late as 1859, "if he (Mr. DeSaussure) had never 



22 



<lone anything beyond this, which literally forced education upon 
the country lying north and west of Columbia, his memory ought 
to be loved and cherished by the thousands Avho have thus been 
educated." 

DeSaussure, Harper, O'Neall, LaBorde, all are gone. They 
all were men who, in their several spheres, had spoken history, 
acted history, lived history, and this is the story they tell. 

If w^e proceed from consideration of the impelling motives, pur- 
poses, and objects, which actuated the founders of the College, and 
inquire to what extent these purposes and objects have been ac- 
complished, to what extent their hopes and expectations have been 
realized, to what extent the education of youth within its walls 
has contributed to the prosperity of society, to what extent the 
College in its practical workings has promoted the instruction, the 
good order, and the harmony of the whole community, to what 
extent by its influence the friendships of young men have been 
promoted and strengthened throughout the State, and our politi- 
cal union advanced thereby ; it will be found, beside the testimony 
of the four distinguished witnesses already given, there is a mass 
of testimony of every admissible species, which gives a full, com- 
plete, satisfactory, and perfect answer. As early as 1823, when 
the College had been in operation but eighteen years, we find ex- 
pressed on the records of the State, the opinion of the Committee 
of the General Assembly on the College. It must be remembered 
that by the Rules of the General Assembly there was in the House 
a Standing Committee on Education, and in the Senate a Stand- 
ing Committee on the College, Education, and Religion. 

Thus spoke the Committee of the General Assembly in 1823 : 

" '^IJhO'Jhe College, created by the patriotism and wisdom of a 
former Legislature, and supported by the bounty and liberality of 
their successors, has already given back to the State the most 
ample compensation for its endowment, and affords the most 



23 



abundant cause of congratulation to every lover of letters, and to 
every lover of his country. The triumph of learning is pro- 
claimed throughout the State, and the voice of improvement is 
heard in every parish and in every village, from the seaboard to 
the mountains. A taste for knowledge is excited only to be 
gratified, and the poAver of intellect is felt and acknowledged in 
every corner of the State ; the dormant genius of many a youth 
is roused from its slumber, and devoted to usefulness and the 
glory of his country. 

^' The distinction which is so frequently attained by the alumni 
of this institution, not only in the learned professions, and in the 
Legislature of Carolina, but in the deliberative assemblies of the 
General Government, cannot be contemplated without pride and 
exultation." 

Thus spoke a similar Committee in 1825 : 

"In contemplating the advantages which are daily accruing to 
the State from the establishment of this institution, your Com- 
mittee cannot refrain from repeating what they have often ex- 
pressed, their unbounded respect for the wisdom and patriotism of 
those men whose names are recorded as the founders of this 
monument of their intelligence and virtue. 'Tis the policy of 
tyrants to entrammel the human understanding, and the privilege 
of despotism to darken the intellect of slaves. 'Tis the security 
of freedom that her sons are ^enlightened, and the boast of repub- 
licans that theirs is the doctrine of equal rights, which can alone 
be maintained by the diffusion of general and correct information. 
'Tis for them to remember, that 'knowledge is power,' and 
their liberty is safe ; but should they ever forget that political 
strength is but another name for learning and for seience, 
that liberty is endangered. Your Committee feel no disposition 
to dwell upon a subject which is already so well understood, or 
unnecessarily to urge a continuance of your patronage, when 



24 



they believe that its influence is so universally acknowledged in 
every corner of your State, and in every department of your, 
government the living evidences that your liberality has been re- 
v\'arded, are preeminently conspicuous. The flowers of literature 
are blooming in every valley, and the tree which 'puts forth 
good fruit' is dispensing its blessings from the tops of your moun- 
tains to the shoals of the Atlantic. 'Tis for you to admire this 
beautiful picture, to cultivate this garden which has been seeded 
by yourself, and to leave to your posterity the abundant harvest 
which its fertility will ensure them." 

Thus spoke Governor Hamilton, in his Message, 1832: 

"No circumstance has occurred to diminish our well-founded 
confidence in the usefulness of the South Carolina College, which 
is going on with regularity and success in the process of qualify- 
ing those who are to come after us to fulfil the high functions 
and offices appertaining to the public weal. That this fountain 
of light may diff"use its beams over our whole State, and be felt 
in the wide extension of literature, science, and all useful knowl- 
edge, must depend on your parental care and unrelaxed vigil- 
ance. To discharge this duty is a debt which you must pay, 
under a sacred obligation, to posterity." 

Thus spoke Governor Robert Y. Hayne, in his Message in 
1833 : 

"The College has unquestionably contributed largely to the 
extension of knowledge; and in the distribution throughout the 
State of well educated and influential men, has amply repaid all 
the care and attention of tlie State." 

In replying to some opposition to the South Carolina College, 
Judge Huger said to the House of Kepresentatives, that if the 
College had never done anything more than educate McDuffie, it 
would be ample compensation to the State for all her expendi- 
tures on the institution. 



25 



Thus spoke McDuffie, while Governor, in his Message in 1835 : 

"Under the guidance of a Faculty equally distinguislied for 
high qualifications and devotion to their very important duties, it 
offers to the rising generation of our State, as many advantages as 
any similar institution in the United States. I cannot too strongly 
recommend it to the patronage of an enlightened Legislature, 
and to the countenance and support of every patriotic citizen. It 
is scarcely possible to place too high an estimate on its importance. 
Upon its successful administration will depend, in no small de- 
gree, the character and destiny of the State. The very great 
and salutary change which it has produced in the character of 
our community, within the last thirty years, is an evidence of the 
high purposes to which it can be made subservient. 

"The community at large must give it their countenance and 
support, and in some sort, their superintendence." 

Thus spoke McDuffie, while Governor, in his Message in 1836 : 

"The flourishing condition of the College must be eminently 
gratifying to every patriotic citizen in the State, of every denom- 
ination, religious or political. And however obvious the truth, 
we cannot too habitually impress it upon our minds, that the use- 
fulness of this institution, so intimately connected with the char- 
acter of the State and the welfare of the generations that are to 
follow us, will greatly depend upon the degree in which the spirit 
of party, religious and political, shall be excluded from its gov- 
ernment. Let this, at least, be a temple dedicated exclusively to 
science and literature, where all the citizens of the State can min- 
gle their devotions in harmony and peace. 

"I cannot conclude this interesting topic without earnestly 
commending the College to your enlightened patronage and fos- 
tering care, as the guardians of the rising generation." 

Thus spoke Pierce M. Butler, while Governor, in his Message 
in 1837 : 



26 



"The College is justly an object of pride to the State. If its 
liberal and enlightened friends and projectors could see its fruits, 
they would have abundant cause of satisfaction and gratification. 
Every citizen in the State may justly regard it as part of his pro- 
perty. If he has not received any immediate advantage himself, 
his son may. The destiny of the State may be said to depend 
on this institution. The young men who are in it should be made 
to understand and believe that the public take all interest in 
them." 

And thus, while Governor, in his Message in 1838 : 

"The affairs of the College are in a condition to fulfil the best 
wishes of its friends. This institution has exercised a vast influ- 
ence over the character of the State, and I believe is destined to 
be its palladium of safety, amidst the popular commotions w^hich 
too frequently agitate all free states. The knowledge acquired 
and the friendships contracted here will be stronger than popular 
violence. Those who have formed good opinions of each other, 
when they w ere associated together in the intimacy of unreserved 
communication, will retain and cultivate a spirit of liberality and 
forgiveness, even in the heats of political hostility. Our wise 
and prudent ancestors could not have devised a more noble and 
effectual means of perpetuating their glorious influence over the 
destinies of their country, than by the establishment of an insti- 
tution of literature and science, under the fostering care of the 
State, in which their precepts would be valued, and their ex- 
amples appreciated. This institution should be a primary object 
of State policy and popular pride. It is the institution of the 
people, and for the people. It is there they must acquire the in- 
telligence to govern themselves. The Legislature should not 
hesitate to make any appropriation which the interests of the Col- 
lege may require." 

Governor llichardson says, in his Message, 1841: 



27 

"I need not, I trust, recommend to your continued favor and 
patronage, an institution, whose enlightened contributions have 
extended to every pursuit and avocation — every art and science, as 
cultivated in our State — and whose influences have been diffused 
through all the walks and vocations of life, occupying every station 
in society, pervading every profession, and adorning the Bench, 
the Bar, the Pulpit, and our Legislative councils. The moral Aveight 
and influence which South Carolina has so long exercised, through 
the talents and usefulness of her statesmen, on the affairs of this 
Union, and which this institution has so largely contributed to 
preserve, is of itself an overruling inducement to foster and im- 
prove it." 

Governor Richardson, in his Message, 1842, says: 
"We may contemplate with a pride and gratification proportion- 
ate to its eminent usefulness and success, the continued results of the 
liberal and enlightened patronage bestowed upon our College. The 
most munificent of all our State endowments, the most honorable 
of all its benefactions, the most useful of all its institutions, 
the most imperishable monument of its wisdom and liberal- 
ity, its continued and uninterrupted career of success and pros- 
perity, even amidst the unusual disadvantages of the present year, 
cannot but be a source of the most heartfelt gratification to its 
official patrons. Adding its annual tribute of learning to the 
general intelligence of the State ; the perennial source of its lit- 
erature, its erudition, and its eloquence ; contributing its succes- 
sive generations of enlightened youth, to commence their ardent 
career of usefulness and of honor, and to occupy their distinguished 
places in society ; w^e have just reason to exult in the unabated 
prosperity which it manifests, in the number, the morals, and the 
acquirements of its students, and in the zeal, erudition, and judi- 
-cious management of its Faculty. . . . The benefits of a single 
year, the attainments of a single class, the acquirements of one 



28 



only of its ripe scholars, the fruit of a single one of those great 
minds whose energies it has developed, would not only compen- 
sate for all the patronage which has hitherto been extended to it, 
but is immeasurably more valuable to the State than the results 
of all her other benefactions to advance the progress of education." 

Governor Hammond says, in his Message in 1843: 

"The College, founded and sustained by the wise munificence 
of the State, has done, and continues to do, more than was ex- 
pected of it." 

Governor Hammond says, in his Message of 1844: 

" The College has done, and continues to do, more for the State, 
than every other corporation put together, within her limits." 

In the Reports and Resolutions of 1844, p. 165, we find the 
Committee on Education, to whom was referred so much of the 
Governor's Message No. 2 as relates to the establishment of a 
Professorship of Greek Literature in the College, respectfully re- 
port : 

"That they have considered the same. It would be a work of 
supererogation for your Committee, at this time, to enlarge upon 
the numerous advantages attendant on a liberal and complete 
classical education, or to urge upon the Legislature of South Car- 
olina such a patronage of her College, as to place that institu- 
tion on terms of honorable competition with similar ones through- 
out the Union. The learned languages are mingled with the lit- 
erature of every civilized people ; their construction and graces 
have imparted strength and elegance to modern tongues of the 
rudest original. The principles of science, of philosophy and 
government, have been generalized and expanded over many 
nations, by the potent influence of those languages, which, hav- 
ing no living speech or separate existence, are the common inheri- 
tance of all the learned, and the channels of universal truth. 

"No human system of education can so elevate the character, 



29 



inspire correct sentiments of honor and patriotism, or refine the 
taste of youth, as that which is based upon profound and critical 
classical attainments. As exercises of the mind, they give healthy 
vigor, and enrich it with graceful accomplishment. In our 
country, it is to be regretted that these studies have been, per- 
haps, too much sacrificed to the sterner duties and more exacting 
necessities of life. For a long time past, it has been a subject of 
anxious solicitude with the dignified and enlightened gentlemen 
who compose the Board of Trustees of the South Carolina Col- 
lege, to supply the want of higher instruction than has hitherto 
been furnished, and to elevate the standard of classical education." 
Governor Johnson says, in his Message in 1847: 
" In the increasing usefulness and growing prosperity of the 
South Carolina College, the State is reaping the full fruits of the 
liberal patronage which she has heretofore bestowed upon that 
institution. It ranks, now, amongst the most useful asylums of 
learning in the southern portion of the Union, and under its 
present wise and prudent and energetic government, it bids fair 
to take the lead of all. It is only the few^ who have lived like 
myself in times preceding the organization of this institution, 
who can realize the full benefits which have resulted from it. 
Before, the only organs of imparting science and learning Avithin 
the State were a few grammar schools, widely dispersed, in which 
the ancient classics were principally taught, with which were occa- 
sionally united a few of the elementary branches of the exact 
sciences ; a higher grade of mental culture was reserved for the 
very few who had the means of going to some of the Northern 
or foreign colleges to complete their education ; and mental dark- 
ness pervaded the land. But under the fostering influence of 
this institution, the lights of literature and the sciences have 
penetrated the recesses of the mountains, the islets of the sea- 
coast, and spread over the whole intermediate space. The num- 



30 



ber of students is now something like fourfold what it was a few 
years ago ; and this addition would seem to indicate the necessity 
of an addition to the number of Professors, and necessarily en- 
larged accommodations for the students. I Avill not anticipate 
what the Board of Trustees, whose peculiar duty and province it 
is to advise on this subject, may suggest. But I will not allow 
myself to question, that whatever appropriations may be neces- 
sary to sustain and promote this invaluable institution, will not 
be withheld." 

The following is an extract from an address by Colonel S. W. 
Trotti, at the Citadel Academy. Colonel Trotti was a distin- 
guished member of Congress : 

"If, in the opinion of many, the Free School System has proved 
a failure, and in the estimation of all, has not accomplished the 
good that was expected, how, I ask, lias it fared with the College ? 
Has that been a failure, or rather has it not accomplished all, 
and more than all, that its most ardent friends and admirers even 
dreamed of? Roll out the noble catalogue of its graduates, and 
let it speak for itself. From its earliest alumni down to its latest, 
from Harper and Petigru and Preston and McDuffie and O'Neall 
and Legar^, and a host of others, whose names are identified 
with all that is great in eloquence and learning, down to the 
youthful Cantey and Adams and Moragne and Brooks and Dick- 
inson, who yielded up their lives in a blaze of glory, amid the 
thunders of Churubusco and Chepultepec. / kyiotv there are 
Home, who give grudgiiigly every dollar which that College gets, 
and %i)ho look upon all colleges as expensive and aristocratic in- 
stitutions, ivhich only benefit those who are educated at them. I 
trust, hotvever, there are but few; and to such economists, per- 
haps, the best arguments that can be applied, are such as can be 
gathered frotn Pike's Arithmetic. And let us see what a little 
ciphering can do. The State annually spends some fifteen or 



31 



twenty thousand dollars on the College. This amount is 
laid out in the State, employs labor in the State, and 
forever remains in the State. In addition to this, the Col- 
lege brings young men into the State, who otherwise would 
not have come, and who spend their money here, in ac- 
quiring an education. Suppose we had no College at all : these 
two hundred young men, noAV at the College in Columbia, would 
go out of the State to receive an education, and carry with them 
some ninety thousand dollars annually, to pay for it. A pretty 
considerable figure, on the wrong side of an account. The economy 
which would withhold a few thousand dollars from active employ- 
ment in the State, and annually drive ninety thousand entirely 
out of it, never to return, rather subjects itself to the imputation 
of being 'penny wise and pound foolish.' Nor can anything be 
more erroneous than that Colleges only benefit those who are 
educated at them. The honored names already referred to, should 
be conclusive. Education does much to promote the general pros- 
perity of the country ; and however poor a man may be, he is more 
or less benefited by the prosperity around him. Every man is 
interested in the preservation of order, and education promotes 
that. But above all, every well educated man is more or less a 
teacher, and exercises an influence on others, sometimes for evil, 
it is true, but much oftener for good. It is his knowledge which 
enables him to defend the rights of the injured, or heal the dis- 
eases of the suffering. It is his science which points out the re- 
sources of the State, or it is his learning which aids his divine 
mission in the glorious work of gospel peace." 

In addition to the above testimony of witnesses who were maor- 
nates of State, it would be doing injustice to the College and to mv 
appreciation of the purposes for which I was invited to make this 
address, did I fail to call your most earnest attention to the tes- 
timony on record of another witness, whose opportunities of 



32 



knowledge of the facts necessary to form a correct judgment were 
unsurpassed, whose qualifications to form a correct judgment upon 
those facts were limited only by the bounds which limit the hu- 
man mind, and whose position in the broad realms of philosophy 
and theology w^as as marked and elevated as that of any of the 
great men I have mentioned ever was in the councils of State. 
Need I say to this audience that the testimony which I urge upon 
your consideration is the celebrated letter on public instruction 
addressed in November, 1853, to John L. Manning, then Gov- 
ernor of South Carolina, by one of the most gifted of all the 
gifted sons whom the College has ever reared ; second to none 
since Jonathan Edwards, if second even to him, of all those who, 
in latter years, have followed Calvin and bowed down to Aristotle ; 
famed on both sides of the Atlantic for the highest intellectual 
endowments, for vigor of thought, closeness of logic, extent of 
learning, and lucidity of expression ; the great Presbyterian 
divine, James H. Thornwell, so long connected with the Col- 
lege, as Professor, Chaplain, President, the early extinction of 
whose great light and life, not only the College, the State,, and 
the Church, but education, science, philosophy, religion, will 
long continue to deplore ? And this testimony, at all times of 
inestimable value, from its fulness and thoroughness, (for he 
touched nothing which he did not both exhaust and adorn,) is 
especially valuable now, because in it he answers certain objec- 
tions to the support of the College by the State so ably, so com- 
prehensively, and so conclusively, that any attempt to improve 
upon this masterpiece would be an attempt "to gild refined gold, 
to paint the lily." If there be any upon whom have been pressed 
such arguments as these^ on the one hand, that the College is for 
the benefit of the few, and therefore should not be supported by 
the taxes of the many — that the College is an aristocratic insti- 
tution, a resort for the rich, exclusive of the poor ; or these, on 



33 



the other hand, that education, in its very nature, belongs to the 
Church or private enterj)rise ; that it includes elements which lie 
beyond the jurisdiction of the State, and therefore the State has 
no rio'ht to interfere with it. 

I beg you to read this letter of the poor boy, who entered 
and went through the College, bearing off its highest honors, 
and ere the clo^e of his brief and brilliant life, towered among 
men like Saul the son of Kish, or like Turnus among the Rutu- 
lian chiefs, '^Qui collo supereminet omnes ;'' who w.is a patriot so 
devoted to the State that he would have gone upon the scaffold 
w^ith Sydney ; a Christian so davoted to the Church, that 
he would have gone to the stake with the martyrs. Road it, and 
see how his intellect, clear as a sunbeam, with its logic, inci- 
sive, and true as the cimeter of Saladin, pierces at once and 
forever through all such objections. There is time for but a few 
brief extracts. 

"I have no hesitation in affirming, that if there be a place 
more than any other where the paor are honored and respected ; 
where indigenes, if coupled with any degree of merit, is an in- 
fallible passport to favor, that place is the South Carolina Col- 
lege. It may be preeminently called the poor man's College, in 
the sense that poverty is no reproach within its walls, no bar to 
its highest honors and most tempting rewards, either amongst 
Professors or students ; on the contrary, if there is a prejudice at 
all, it is against the rich ; and from long observation and expe- 
rience, I am prepared to affirm tliat no s])irit receives a sterner, 
stronger, more indignant rebuke within these walls, tlian the })ri(le 
and vanity of wealtli." 

" There never was a more cirievous error than tliat tlie Collcirc; 

is in antagonism to tlie interest of the people. Preciselv tlie 

opposite is the trutli ; and because it is preeminently a public 

good, operating, directly or indirectly, to the ])enefit of every 

3 AA 



34 



citizen of the State, the Legislature was originally justified in 
founding, and is, in still sustaining this noble institution. It 
has made South Carolina what she is ; it has made her people 
what they are ; and, from her mountains to her seaboard, there is 
not a nook or corner of the State that has not shared in its' 
healthful influence." 

"Let all the sects combine to support the State College, and 
they can soon create a sentiment which with the terrible certainty 
of fate, shall tolerate nothing unholy or unclean in its walls. 
They can make it religious without being sectarian. The true 
power of the Church over these institutions is not that of direct 
control, but of moral influence arising from her direct work upon 
the hearts and consciences of all the members of the community." 

"There surely ought to be some common ground on which 
the membei^ of the same State may meet together and feel that 
they are brothers — some common ground on which their children 
may mingle without confusion or discord, and bury every narrow 
and selfish interest in the sublime sentiment that they belong to 
the same family. Nothing is so powerful as a common education 
and the thousand sweet associations which spring from it and 
cluster around it, to cherish the holy brotherhood of men. Those 
who have walked together in the same paths of science and taken 
sweet counsel in the same halls of learning, who went arm in arm 
in that hallowed season of life when the foundations of all excel- 
lence are laid, who have wept with the same sorrows or laughed 
with the same joys, who have been fired with the same ambition, 
lured with the same hopes, and grieved at the same disappoint- 
ments — these are not the men in after years to stir up animosi- 
ties or foment intestine feuds. Their College life is a bond of 
union which nothing can break — a divine poetry of existence 
which nothing is allowed to profane. Who can forget his College 
days and his College companions and even his College dreams? 



85 



Would you make any commonwealth a unit? Educate its sons to- 
gether. This is the secret of the harmony which has so remark- 
ably characterized our State. It was not the influence of a single 
mind, great as that mind was ; it was no tame submission to au- 
thoritative dictation. It Avas the community of thought, feeling, 
and character, achieved by a common education within these 
walls. Here it was that heart was knit to heart, mind to mind, 
and that a common character was formed. 

"Let us have a college which is worthy of the name ; to Avhich 
we can invite the scholars of Europe with an honest pride, and 
to which our children may repair from all our borders, as the 
states of Greece to their Olympia, or the chosen tribes to Mount 
Zion." 

If the testimony of these "great of old, the dead but sceptred 
sovereigns who still rule our spirits from their urns," is true, then 
upon each and every one of the Alumni of the College, and upon 
the State, there is the highest obligation to act to the fullest extent 
in accordance with that testimony. If that testimony is untrue, 
where has its untruth been proclaimed in the past ? Where is it 
proclaimed in the present ? Who make such proclamation ? and 
upon what ground does such proclamation rest ? I have adduced 
the testimony of no living man. They — living men — are here. 
Many of the living Alumni are here, in the full possession of every 
faculty of our being, with all those faculties in the full ardor of pul)- 
lic life, with brilliant ambition to stimulate, and with that most ex- 
hilarating and tempting spell of human existence, popular acclama- 
tion, resounding in their ears. They can speak for themselves — 
they must act for themselves. Their testimony, as seen by the 
formation of this Association, is given with no uncertain sound. 
Nor have I spoken of the noble sons of Carolina, living or dead, 
who, by their munificent benefactions, have placed themsidves on 



36 

the same plane which the great founders of scholarships at Oxford 
and Cambridge occupy in England ; for every one in South Car- 
olina, or in the South, interested in the College or addicted to 
letters, knows that the founders of scholarships in the South 
Carolina College are John L. Manning, the ])resont Wade Hamp- 
ton, Hiram B. Hutchinson, and R. F. AV. Alston. Nor have I 
said aught of the great names which have been connected with 
this noble institution during the three-quarters of a century in 
which it has been in existence, except as was necessary for the 
purposes indicated, — not even of that brilliant galaxy of Profes- 
sors who illustrated whatever there was of classic or scientific ''inter 
silvas academi,'' when thirty years ago, a callow boy of fifteen, 
I first entered within its dear old walls, save incidentally in the 
preceding connexion as I have spoken of my kind preceptors, 
Drs. LaBorde and Thornwell ; nothing of Preston, then Presi- 
dent, first of living orators, whose unstudied talks to his classes 
were worth more than what was in the text-books, Blair and 
Kames. Preston, even in his decline, as Macaulay says of 
Chatham, "an awful and majestic ruin, not to be contemplated 
by any South Carolinian of sense and feeling without emotions 
resembling those which are excited by the remains of the Parthe- 
non and the Coliseum," and whose utterances, even then, when 
aroused, he sent forth a flash of he'roic rays, struck upon the ear, 
to use the perfect simile of Thomas Hanckel, "like the rich clash 
of stricken silver;" nor of Lieber, whose knowledge of history 
seemed almost universal, whose fame extended to both hemi- 
spheres, tlie most fertile, indomitable, unsleeping, combative, and 
propagandizing person of his race; nor of Williams, guileless as 
a child, most exact of mathematicians ; nor of Pelham, most ac- 
complished of essayists, and Professor of Roman Literature; nor 
of Henry, confessedly first of Grecians, wlio filled with ease any 
and every role in the department of Professor. 



37 



Shall I say to this audience, in behalf of higher education, that 
it is now even more true than when said by the prince of the old 
British essayists, that "what sculpture is to marble, education is 
to the human soul" ? Shall I say to this audience that it is an 
age when it can be said with more truth than in the time of 
Sterne, "knowledge in most affairs and most of its branches is 
like music in an Italian street, whereof those may partake who 
pay nothing ;" that it is an age when it can be said with more 
truth than when Hammond uttered it a third of a century ago, 
that "knowledge, no longer the night-blooming plant which pro- 
duces its blossom but once an a^^e, now vea-etates like the orano-e 
in its genial climes, to which spring time and autumn flowers and 
fruits are ever present together ;" that it is an age when time and 
space for the. purposes of the transmission of intelligence have 
been almost annihilated, when the ocean has been virtually bridged 
and the continents united by electric bands, when lightning has 
been given to letters, and letters to lightning; when Samuel 
Morse and Cyrus Field have outstripped the proud boast of 
Puck in "the JMidsummer Night's Dream," and "put a girdle 
round aboul^arth in less than forty minutes" ? You remember 
when Daguerre was experimenting on the line of his great dis- 
covery, he came very near being confined for insanity ; but we 
have seen the Sun God curbed by the handling of men, and made 
to paint, with an accuracy beyond the reach of Titian and Van 
Dyke, the thoughtful foreheads of grave statesmen, the scarred 
brows of rugged veterans, the sweet smiles of noble matrons, made 
to reproduce with all the exactness of the original that ideal 
suavity which Raphael gave his Madonnas at the mystic point of 
intersection of virginity, maternity, and divinity. We have seen 
Echo, the coyest of the Nymphs, imprisoned. We have seen the 
photograph and phonograph. 

Shall I tell this audience that the schoolmaster is abroad, and 



38 



every twilight nook is open to the ghire of the cla}^ ; that super- 
stition and priestcraft no longer rear their horrible empire in the 
human mind ; that he who will not reason is a bigot, he who can- 
not reason is a fool, he who dare not reason is a slave; that 
thought, no longer, an infant scared and whipped, has risen up 
like a strong man after slumber, a giant refreshed with wine; and 
has warred, and is still warring, with all old abuses and effete sys- 
tems which have outlived their uses, with "the folios of dunces, the 
fires of inquisitors, and the dungeons of kings, and the long dull 
system of imposture and misrule which has sat for centuries like" 
a gloating incubus on the fair neck" of humanity? Shall I tell 
this audience that "a hundred years now does the work of a thou- 
sand of the old years when Time was young, that it is the fifty 
years of Europe against the cycle of Cathay, the blood beats 
against the figures on the dial"? Shall I tell this audience that 
in all contests in life, from the most insignificant to the most im- 
[)ortant, from the Derby and the Goodwood Turf to the great 
Olympic races of life for the grandest prizes of human ambition 
and earthly interest, it is training, preparation, perfect education, 
that always win ? What makes the huge wall crash before the 
course of the slight ball ? 'Tis accelerated educated force. Life 
is real. Life is earnest. Life is the verb to do. Life is 
ayo)v — strife ; and in strife in this right masterful world, the 
weaker must go to the wall. ^^Imperium,'' said Sallust eighteen 
hundred years ago in the regal language of Rome, ^Hmj)erium 
his artibus rethietur quibus initio partiun est.'' Empire, com- 
mand, excellence, influence, are retained, and can be retained, 
only by the exercise of those high (qualities of the soul by which 
they were originally obtained. This truth is resonant on every 
page of recorded history from the grey dawn of antiquity to the 
vear of ijjrace in which we live ; it has been echoed and re-echoed 
down all the corridors of time. As tliev sank for the last time 



39 



beneath the wave whicli has engulfed so many priceless argo- 
sies, it has rung in the ears of mighty peoples that have pre- 
ceded us ; it may ring again in the ears of as mighty peoples 
that may succeed us ; it will ring in ours, if we neglect the price- 
less lessons which it teaches. 

If, from any false conceit, arising from vanity, indolence, nar- 
rowness or what not, we hug to our bosoms anything akin to the 
flattering delusion unfortunately but too prevalent, that "we arc 
the people, and that wisdom will die with us," if we do not live 
up to our lights, our opportunities, our civilization, and our mis- 
sion, we will most assuredly find at no distant day that the indo- 
lence, the ignorance, the carelessness, the frenzy of nations is the 
statesnxanship of fate. Upon us will be the curse of Reuben, "Un- 
stable as water, thou slialt not excel ;" and ours too Avill be but a 
name writ upon the sands, destined to fade like the Tyrian dye 
and decay like Venetian palaces. 

These thoughts, though important, and not to be lost sight 
of, are, it may be said, threadbare truisms, and '^difficile est 
proprie commu7iia dicer e ;'' but we cannot shut our eyes to the 
fact that South Carolina is a member of the American Union, 
and that the Coursers of the Sun, as rising with the virgin light 
of the primal East, they make their broad circuit till they 
plunge with the dying day into the western ocean, show 
nowhere on the face of this great globe, to the Sun God whom 
they bear, so magnificent a spectacle of human happiness as these 
United States of America, placed by omnipotence in the giant 
hands of guardian oceans, wdth countless lakes, lovelier than 
dreams of the Faery Land, with countless valleys which might 
seem hollowed out to enclose the last homes of liberty, extending 
on lines of latitude from the ice bound regions of the North to 
the glittering waters of the South, from the snows where the 
hunter traps his game to where rolls the Mexican gulf, extending 



40 



on lines of longitude from ocean to ocean, from the ocean that 
roars to the ocean that sleeps, those outlines drawn by the fingers of 
(jrod for tlie residence of a giant people, "its vast extent gemmed 
with the civilized beauties of a thousand cities, and peopled 
with untiring millions, under whose energy its rivers and inland 
seas roll down gold, its forests vanish, and its fields burst into lux- 
uriant harvests," and destined sooner or later to absorb our hardy 
northern, and to control our degenerate soutliern neiglibors on all 
this broad continent. Nor can we sluit our eyes to the fact that 
of all the thirty-eight commonwealths which make up this vast, 
powerful, prosperous Union, South Carolina is- behind each and 
every one of her sisters in both theoretical and practical appreci- 
ation of the fact that in this age of enormous intellectual develop- 
ment, it is the duty of each State which looks to success in the 
present, or life in the future, to establish and make accessible in 
the concrete, the highest grade of education possibly attainable, 
by means of its own institutions, within its own territory, and un- 
der its own supervising and fostering care ; and that while the 
other States amid the roar of railroads and the click of telegraphs 
are bending every energy by State aid to educate tlieir youth on 
such a plane as to keep them abreast of the progress of the age, 
the old Palmetto State, unmindful of her motto, '-''Bum spiro, 
upero, spes,'' has been unable thoroughly to arouse herself even 
yet from tlie lethargy caused by her great disaster, and that cer- 
tain worn-out tlieories and exploded dogmas of the past, Avliich it 
was hoped the success of the College, for more than half a cen- 
tury, had sent forever to the tomb of the Capulets, have been 
stirred into a dangerous vitality. Tlie evidence adduced is con- 
clusive to show that the motives, purposes, and olyects of the 
noble spirits who laid tlie foundations of the College three- 
(juarters of a century ago, Avere based upon the broadest and 
wisest principles of statesmanship, ujjon the broadest and most 



41 



all-embracing principles of State patriotism, and that the most 
sanguine expectations and brightest hopes of these patriots and 
statesmen Avere more than realized. Even if, when this fair city, 
the capital of the State, glared beneath the torch, and revelling 
invaders were in every household ^to ; Campus Avails and every- 
thing Avithin them reared by the hand of man had gone doAvn be- 
neath the flames ; it Avould seem that true statesmanship and that 
laudable ambition Avhicli Themistocles possessed and Avhich pos- 
sessed Themistocles to make a small state great, Avould prom])t 
immediately the constituted authorities of the State to ensure the 
reestablishment of this institution at as early a date as i)ossible. 
But Avith a complete outfit of buildings and its exceedingly valu- 
able library preserved, Avith the institution reopened under such 
favorable auspices, and A\'ith such an admirable corps of Pro- 
fessors, Avith the youth of the State, its hope and pride, com- 
mencing to flock to the old home of the classics and science, 
still breathing the aroma of the great spirits there trained for the 
triumphs they have obtained in the forum, the camp, and the 
council chamber; to neglect to foster, encourage, and sustain it, 
aye, even to neglect the doing of anything Avhich Avould tend to 
restore it to its pristine influence, and make it flourish in per- 
ennial youth, Avould seem, on the part of the State, if not a 
blunder AA'ithin Talleyrand's category of those blunders Avorse than 
crime, yet in the mildest vicAv a fatal mistake, the conse(|uences of 
which she will rue to the latest day of her existence as a State. 
And should the University have its poAver for high education 
restored to the standard of the old College, by the establishment 
of additional professorships, this institution Avould have additional 
advantages. Under the Act of Congress making the donation 
Avhich noAV mainly sup])orts the University, Agriculture and 
Mechanics are made specialties. 

Besides, by authority of the same Act, the Secretary of War 



42 



will, as I am informed, soon detail an army officer as Professor of 
Tactics and the Art of War, whose salary is paid by the United 
States Government. Hence, with the distino-uished graduate of 
West Point who now fills the chair of Mathematics, and this 
Professor of Tactics and the Art of War, the desirable features 
of a military education will be added to the former curriculum ; 
and this will be the old Greek idea of education, that is, to fit 
men to perform the duties both of war and peace — the heau ideal 
of education in the great mind of Legar^. 

The College has tended in the past more than any and every 
other influence singly or combined to unify the diiferent sections of 
the State. Its triumph has been synonymous with the decline of 
sectionalism, its tendency to decadence has been synonymous with 
the tendency of the spirit of sectionalism to rise. While the Col- 
lege stands alive with energy and vigor, her limbs not bowed, 
nor rusted with a vile repose. South Carolina will be a unit- 
When the College falls, the adamantine link with which the 
fathers sought to bind the different sections together, will 
be burst. God forbid that it should be burst by parricidal 
or matricidal hands ! Sustain, foster, encourage, and put on 
former plane of usefulness, this noble institution which has in the 
past contributed so much, directly and indirectly, to the fame, 
honor, and interest of the State, and every part of it ; and the 
tendency to dissension between different sections and interests 
which may have germinated during the dark days through which 
we have passed in the temporary eclipse of the warmth and light 
of this bond of brotherhood, will soon sleep forever where the 
carols of the larks are sleeping that gladdened the spring tides 
of those years; sleep, Avhere the roses are sleeping that glorified 
the beauty of their summers ; and the sons of South Carolina, 
unified and united by the benign influence of this great training 
school, an influence bright as the glittering stars in the wintry 



43 

sky, but soft ;».s the suTinner s breeze, may, in tbe (biys wbicb are 

yet to come aiul whicb sliall fill ii)) tbe inberitHUce of ulory for 

our inotber (^iroliiia, give rise to a coiiibinatioii of cbaractt r 

above tbe level of oui* time, tbougbts suited to tbat elevation, 

feelings nH)i-e generous, vivid, and majestic, and exploits unitini: 

' j» J — 

tbe soaring spirit of old Rcmianee witb tbe sustained tlRrrnrk^s ^^^ try/^-t-f^^/: 

nu)dern energy, and vindicate anew ber title to ber old beraldic // 

legend, ''Anjmis opiiiU^QUE pa K ATI." 



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LIBRARY OF CONbKtbb 

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